In recent years, wireless communications, such as high-tier cellular telephones and pagers, and low-tier personal access communications systems (PACS), have dramatically enhanced our ability to communicate. In both personal and professional life, these devices have made it more convenient and less time consuming for people to stay in touch with one another.
With wireless telephones in particular, people are now able to communicate from places where they would otherwise be unreachable. Wireless telephones also allow people to make use of time which would otherwise be wasted. For example, with a wireless telephone, time spent riding in a car, walking down the street, etc. can also be time spent conducting business, scheduling appointments or coordinating plans with family and friends.
Wireless telephones thus allow users to maximize the use of their time. However, to be truly valuable, the important information gathered during these phone calls such as names, phone numbers, appointments, commitments, etc. must be remembered or recorded so as to be available at a later time.
Because human memory is often short or unreliable, it is a common practice to keep a scratchpad of paper near an office or home phone for writing down important information gathered during phone calls. Unfortunately, keeping a scratchpad at hand while roaming with a wireless phone is much less convenient.
Moreover, wireless phones are often used at the same time the user is also engaged in some other activity, such as driving a car. Clearly, it may be dangerous or impossible to attempt to hold a cellular phone, write a message on a scratchpad and drive a car simultaneously. Writing on a paper scratchpad while also holding a telephone handset may require note-takers to use both hands for listening and note-taking and to place their eyes on the pad rather than the road or street where they are driving or walking.
Accordingly, to fully capitalize on the freedom and flexibility offered by wireless communications, there is a need for a method and apparatus for recording important information gathered during a wireless telephone call that does not require much attention or effort. More specifically, there is a need for a method and apparatus for recording important information gathered during a wireless telephone call that does not require the user to write on a paper scratchpad.